The new investment management firm will deploy Imagine Software as a trade capture, portfolio and risk management platform.

With a focus on credit and merger arbitrage strategies, Mereor needed a risk and portfolio management system that would provide extremely flexible stress testing capabilities, a high degree of user-defined customization capabilities, and reporting transparency sufficient for the demands of today's investors.

Mereor founding partner Georges Gedeon commented: "In today's highly volatile climate, risk management is top of mind for everyone, and investors are demanding that funds have institutional-grade risk management tools in place from the start. While we did survey numerous offerings in our search for a system, only Imagine could provide the level of sophistication, flexibility and transparency we required. In addition, Imagine's team represents valuable expertise in supporting multi-strategy investment processing, including handling credit and merger arbitrage strategies. We feel extremely confident as we head toward launch that we have made the right decision on behalf of our investors."

Imagine's ability to conduct comprehensive stress testing of Mereor's strategies was crucial to its selection. Also making Imagine stand out from its competitors, according to Mereor, was Imagine's enthusiasm in designing and quickly implementing proprietary risk calculation formulas and customized data and portfolio views.

According to Gedeon, Mereor's combination of credit and merger arbitrage strategies-which the firm believes represents a unique investment approach-necessitated the ability to assess risk within a combined equity and credit portfolio. Imagine's ability to handle unique nuances of credit and merger arbitrage strategies, like the need for overlay protections against directional bias, the necessity of liquidity provision and information, and hedging interest-rate risk against credit, were considered mandatory functional requirements by Mereor.

Mereor's COO Hasan Sabri commented that Imagine's inherent flexibility was a significant advantage in terms of being able to execute quick customizations. "The ability to quickly change risk calculations and the manner in which data and portfolio views are presented to the end user-without the expense and delay associated with the programming resources other systems usually demand-translates to an agile system that quickly adapts to reflect new business needs."

"We are delighted that a start-up fund, particularly one with the management pedigree of Mereor, has selected Imagine to support its business needs," said Yvonne Dahl, Director of Sales and Marketing at Imagine. "Mereor made the decision to launch a fund focused specifically on their unique core competencies in credit and merger arbitrage, concentrating in a market segment ripe for growth in the new investment landscape. We are excited to help them capitalize on this opportunity and help them grow."